keynote jennifer keesmaat

Jennifer Keesmaat is an urban planner passionate about creating places where people flourish. Named one of the “most powerful people in Canada” by Macleans, and one of the “most influential” by Toronto Life, and one of the top Women of Influence in Canada, she spent five years as Toronto’s Chief City Planner, where she was celebrated for her forward thinking and collaborative approach to city-building

Robert keen, Forests ontario

In 2014, Rob Keen assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer of Forests Ontario (the merged organization of Trees Ontario and Ontario Forestry Association) after serving as CEO of Trees Ontario since 2011. Rob is currently leading the Forests Ontario team in sustaining and generating new partnerships to support and achieve its re-greening mandate.

Mason prout, patagonia

Raised in Thunder Bay, Mason spent years soaking up all of the wilderness that Northwestern Ontario offers. After graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce from Ryerson University in Toronto, he now works for Patagonia as the Environmental Point Person and social media dude at the Toronto location. This position involves leading the stores' environmental presence at a local level, which includes coordinating the Retail Grants Program (which offers financial support for non-profit environmental organizations), product donations, Activism hours, assisting groups with various campaigns, encouraging our staff and community to become involved, and providing support for organizations in any other ways we can.

Matt brown, patagonia

Matt was raised by the river in his hometown of Washago, Ontario. A small town on the southern point of Lake Couchiching, just outside of Muskoka. Growing up surrounded by water, in a town with an Ojibwa word meaning "Sparkling Waters", Matt has always had a connection to the wilderness that helped shape his upbringing.

The other side of growing up in small-town Ontario was hockey. Which, led Matt to a career in broadcasting, achieving a diploma in Sports Broadcasting from the College of Sports Media. After a decade as a sports radio producer, Matt had a calling for the water again. That led him to the organization Swim Drink Fish, where he spend a year as their communications manager, and now, is helping Patagonia bring their community together over everyone's love of the outdoors.

Daniel Mackinnon, mackinnon brothers brewing co.

Daniel brings a wealth of knowledge of the brewing industry, with a Master’s degree in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and extensive experience at the brewing research firm BRI in London, England.  In 2012 he and his brother used their experience to build a farm based brewery on their families bicentennial farm.  The main focus of the brewery is to use home grown and other local ingredients to create unique and delicious beer in a sustainable way. 

pamela shea, st. lawrence college

Pamela Shea is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst. She received her Master’s in Applied Disability from Brock University, Graduate Certificate of Behaviour Analysis from the University of North Texas, her Undergraduate Honours degree in Psychology at Queens University, and a diploma in Behaviour Science Technology at St. Lawrence College. In this talk, Pam will be discussing her research about changing attitudes and behaviour patterns towards plant-based eating.

devon hawkins, nufuuds

Devon is a Commerce and Global Development student at Queen’s with a passion for food and sustainability. His hometown is Canmore, Alberta where he grew up as a ski racer and mountain sports enthusiast. This summer he started nufuuds with 3 other co-founders with the goal of revolutionizing the food landscape with the worlds most sustainable and nutrient rich food, algae.

paul Maclatchy, city of kingston

Paul MacLatchy’s role at the City of Kingston has involved the development of environmental management systems, greenhouse gas emission inventories, climate action planning, green building policies and most recently, the recruitment of Dropbike public bike sharing and the installation of Kingston’s public electric vehicle charging network. He’s also responsible for the City’s brownfield programs and management of closed landfill sites. Prior to joining the City, Paul worked in consulting and mining sectors and is a graduate of Queens University’s faculty of engineering.

Paige agnew, city of kingston

Paige has been the Chief Planner and Director of Planning, Building & Licensing (PB&L) Services for the City of Kingston for the past 5 years. Alongside her team, Paige has the privilege of providing professional guidance, policy development and strategy focused on propelling Kingston forward as a 21st century vibrant and sustainable City. Paige has made significant changes to the way the City of Kingston works with the development community and has reshaped Planning, Building & Licensing Services to provide a better service continuum. In a short period of time, she has become a key strategic leader within the City of Kingston and her passion and vision have enabled her to find innovative solutions to community challenges.

Paige joined the planning profession in 2002, while working on her master's degree in planning at the University of Guelph. Through undergraduate studies in environment and resource studies at the University of Waterloo, she developed a passion to understand all that contributes to making a community strong, sustainable and resilient. Paige spent seven years working as a planning consultant for several firms in Ontario with a focus on land-use and environmental planning and in 2009 assumed the position as the Associate Director of Capital Planning and Sustainability at St. Lawrence College overseeing the capital-planning and space-management portfolio for all three campuses, including infrastructure replacement and development of the college's first sustainability plan.

Russell Horne, City of Kingston

Russell is a graduate of St Lawrence Colleges Energy Systems Engineering Technology program and has been working for the City of Kingston since 2018 in the Facilities Management and Construction Services Department. Russell is involved in a wide variety of projects including the portfolio of Building Automation Systems, the development of the Conservation and Demand Management plans, annual energy reporting, feasibility studies of energy retrofit projects, facility energy modelling and many other initiatives. Russell plays a key role in supporting the City of Kingston’s GHG reduction strategies while making the corporation a smarter, greener and more sustainable city.